Manufacturers of mobile phones, and other computing devices with cellular connectivity, increasingly provide such devices for use by different mobile operators in different markets. For example, a large mobile phone manufacturer may sell mobile phones to different mobile phone operators in the U.S., to different mobile phone operators in Europe, and to different mobile phone operators in other markets throughout the world.
In order to work with a particular mobile phone operator and in a particular market or country, a mobile phone needs to be configured with settings specific to the operator, and possibly to the particular market, country, etc. For example, cellular data settings may need to be configured in addition to other settings, such as country-specific settings, application settings, etc.
In order for the manufacturer to provide the mobile phone, and associated operating system software, for each specific combination of mobile operator, country, etc., that needs different settings, the manufacturer may need to create a separate version of the operating system software configured with the settings for the specific combination. For example, a manufacturer may have to create many different “images” (e.g., hundreds or more) of the operating system software, each configured to support a different combination of mobile operator, country, etc.
Providing many different version, or images, of the operating system software can be problematic and inefficient. For example, the manufacturer may spend a lot of time setting up and maintaining each version. In addition, if a change to a particular setting is needed, it can require updating many different versions of the operating system software.
Therefore, there exists ample opportunity for improvement in technologies related to configuring a mobile operating system.